When UNICEF-trained health workers travel to remote parts of Ebola-ravaged Sierra Leone, they don’t just make sure children are immunised against measles – a highly contagious and potentially life-threatening childhood illness – they distribute other preventative health care, like vitamin A and deworming tablets, and offer nutrition screenings.

In Sierra Leone, UNICEF and its partners will, this year, reach 1.5 million children five years and under with vital health care and childhood immunisations. This follows the worst outbreak of Ebola in history and continues amid the ongoing health emergency.

Polio

We are so close to eradicating polio - for good. This month, UNICEF celebrated a year of Africa remaining polio-free. It leaves just two countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan, with ongoing cases of this debilitating and often deadly virus.

In 1998, there was an estimated 350,000 cases of polio. Immunisation has brought that down to just 416 cases in 2013.

If we fail to eradicate polio the disease could climb to 200,000 new cases every year, globally, in just 10 years.

In conflict situations, children miss out on routine vaccinations to protect them from preventable diseases. In Syria, no new polio cases had been recorded since 1999, but the disease returned in late 2013, at the height of the current emergency.

Last year, UNICEF led the world’s largest polio vaccination campaign, targeting 25 million children in Syria and around the region to stop the spread of polio in its tracks. With UNICEF working to eliminate this debilitating, and sometimes deadly, disease in its last few strongholds, the end of polio is in sight.

The very first step to making sure a baby is strong and healthy is to make sure mothers are strong and healthy. Tetanus vaccinations, as well as hygienic birth environments and umbilical cord care, can save mothers and babies who would otherwise be lost to this painful and often fatal illness.

UNICEF is committed to eradicating maternal and neonatal tetanus and has been working around the world to vaccinate mothers and ensure safe childbirth.

Reaching every child

All children deserve protection from preventable diseases and right now, we're working to deliver vaccines to some of the world's most remote and dangerous regions. You can help us reach further, faster, and ensure every child has access to lifesaving immunisations.